My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 160

Enzo

The last thing I saw before the portal closed entirely was the image of Selena grabbing my father from behind and holding a knife to his throat. Her eyes, red with fury, were burned into my psyche. I lunged forward in a desperate attempt to somehow reach back through and pull my father to safety, but it was too late; the portal was already closed.

I was alone.

It took a few minutes to realize where I was exactly, but I finally came to the realization that I was just outside of town, just a few feet away from the road.

The road, which normally had at least two or three cars on it at any given time despite how quiet the town of Mountainview normally was, was now dead silent. The eeriness of it all made me shudder, but I had to push forward. If I didn’t save the town and save Nina, my dad putting himself in danger for me would be entirely in vain.

As I walked toward the town, I kept mulling over Selena’s actions in my mind. I was certain that she wouldn’t go so far as to kill anyone, especially not my father. Sure, she would threaten him or throw a tantrum, but killing the Alpha of the Fullmoons wouldn’t put her in the best position with her own father, and besides — I didn’t think that she really had the capacity to kill anyone, anyway. If she did, she would have just killed Nina before rather than going through all of the trouble of setting up a strange little magical prison for Nina.

In my eyes, Selena was just a scared, spoiled little girl. Maybe I was wrong in thinking this, but telling myself that my father would be okay kept me going, and that was the most important thing.

Eventually, I came to the town. It was equally as lifeless as the road, with abandoned cars scattered throughout the streets. There was trash and debris everywhere from the mad dash of people trying to get away from the rogues. Thankfully, I didn’t see any bodies yet, which was a relief. My best guess was that the Crescents really only wanted to turn people into rogues to add more numbers to their army, not kill them. And thankfully, rogues could be cured thanks to Tiffany’s antidote.

Not only would saving the town ensure that my father’s consequences for helping me wouldn’t be in vain, but it would also ensure that Tiffany’s horrible death wouldn’t be in vain. By using the antidote to save the town, her legacy would live on… But first, I had to find Nina, and then the antidote.

Night was beginning to fall as I walked, which meant that rogues would be coming out of their hiding spots soon to roam around. I hoped that Nina was safely hidden away somewhere, but I couldn’t be sure. I couldn’t pick up her scent, either, so I was at a loss as to where she was.

Suddenly, as I was walking down the street, I saw someone ahead of me come out of a house with a shotgun in their hands. I quickly crouched behind a nearby car before they saw me, then peered around the side of the car and watched closely.

It was James.

He had a dark, grim expression on his face and seemed to be marching down the street with purpose, headed away from me. Maybe he knew something about where Nina was? But as I considered calling out to him, I remembered the letter that Nina and I found as well as his sickening presentation at the symposium, and it reminded me that I couldn’t be entirely trusting of him. For all I knew, there were silver bullets in that gun. At the very least, however, I could follow him to see where he was going.

I quietly followed at a distance, darting behind cars and trees and staying low, as the sky darkened above. James kept walking forward with purpose, clutching his shotgun confidently.

Suddenly, I saw the form of a rogue ahead of him. It was meandering along, not even noticing his presence at first. James could have easily run and hid from the rogue and waited until it passed by, but he didn’t.

Without so much as a moment of hesitation, he raised his gun and shot at the rogue. He hit it right in the head, killing it instantly.

James only chuckled. “I shot that bitch yesterday,” he said, causing my heart to leap into my throat. “I doubt she made it.”

“You… Shot Nina?” I growled, my chest heaving with anger. In a fit of rage, I pulled my fist back and punched James as hard as I could square in the nose. He was instantly knocked out, and I heard a crunch beneath my fist. When I pulled it away, there was blood pouring out of his now-broken nose, and I didn’t even care how bad it would hurt when he woke up.

No… Nina couldn’t be dead. I would know if she was; our bond was too strong. She was my true fated mate — I was sure of that now — and I was certain that my wolf would feel it if something happened to her.

Suddenly, as the team stood in shock at what I just did to James, we heard the distinct sound of raucous howling coming from the direction of the campus — the cabins, to be exact.

In that instant, I heard something else: Nina’s voice, inside my head, calling for help.

Matt and I didn’t need to speak to know what we had to do. “Take James back to the safehouse,” he said to the team. “We’ll meet you there.”

Then, with a single nod to each other, Matt and I shifted and ran off into the night.